One of my first design projects as an Instructional Designer at the McMaster Institute for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Learning (MIIETL) is a 5-course MOOC Specialization on Coursera called Finance for Everyone, available to learners internationally no-cost or for-cost. This project has been extremely rewarding to contribute to, yet characterized by a variety of challenges, including one made my priority upon arriving at McMaster: engaging participants and building community via activities. What may be a more straightforward task in other learning design environments was made challenging by the limitations of the Coursera platform and (initially) absent course outcomes.

A development resource project that has been on my priority wishlist for some time now has been to create an asynchronous, on-demand Learning Management System (LMS) training module that can be accessed by faculty and staff at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) 24/7. Recently, I finally had the opportunity to focus on this wishlist item, which resulted in the creation of this Articulate Storyline-designed module (click the image above to see it!) that is now available to faculty and staff on CMCC’s LMS, “KIRO”. Continue reading →

I have had the pleasure of working at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) since the spring of 2013, and just last month I had the honour of signing on to a new job description and title. Formerly the Coordinator, Curriculum & Faculty Development, I am now the Coordinator, Technology-Enabled Learning. This change reflects a great deal of growth in the position I’ve held for the past year and a half, as well as the true focus of my skill development and work activity at CMCC. Continue reading →

The above poster is not something I myself created but captures the culmination of months of planning, a process I drove at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) in order to make the first annual CMCC Teaching & Learning Conference at my institution a reality.

“I was wondering if I could arrange a meeting with you to go over my midterm. I am a little surprised that I did very poorly on it, since I studied extremely hard. I have not missed a class, and am putting in a lot of effort to do well, and unfortunately I am currently failing.”

When I received the above email from a student I will call (but is not actually named) Britney, I was saddened by the student’s distress, impressed by her initiative, and ready with a strategy for how to tackle her concerns going into the next midterm for the course.

In the year 2011, many exciting developments occurred in my life, and all meant progression in my career in teaching and learning. Keep reading for a recap of all the developments that happened in 2011, including: creation of my ePortfolio, Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, completion of M.Sc., and employment!

I recently received the results from the formal teaching evaluations that were conducted at the end of the 2010 term of EOSC 516. Despite good reviews from the previous year, I strive to be the best and have a tendency to anticipate the worst….

Yesterday, I taught my very first “real” lecture, for EOSC*372, Introductory Oceanography – Circulation and Plankton. Having previously given various presentations (which I firmly believe are not the same as lessons), led group inquiry for young students at the Aquarium, and taught ten-minute practice lessons, I had been informally waiting for this day, yet did not know the time was upon me until just one week ago.

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A World View

The header and buttons above depict earth's night-time lights, taken from space. To me, this photo evokes thoughts of the unknown, some of which I've been lucky enough to explore (via oceanographic expeditions to the Arctic in 2009 and eastern Pacific in 2010), as well as my strong belief in fostering community - both in and out of the classroom - which is represented by the beautiful clusters of light.Photo credit: Earth at Night, Nov 27, 2007, NASA. Photo editing by R.L. Taylor

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